WHOA, holy overwhelming…!!!
My dad and I were standing in the middle of Guangzhou’s biggest train station, in the third largest city in China (19 million people) and we were totally lost. The Tennis Academy sent a driver to pick us up, but there was a problem, he wasn’t at the station. I don’t speak Cantonese (which is what he spoke along with many others residents in southern China) so we had to find someone at the information desk to assist us with locating him. He appeared with a great big smile and within 30 minutes we had arrived at...

September 29-October 3, 2018
𿓍Nanjing, China
Arriving in Nanjing was a completely blind experience. All I knew was that it was one of the the original ancient Capitals of China. Matt told us we needed to come and visit but refused to let me know why. Nanjing is the capital of the Jiangsu province and has a total population of nearly 9 million people. The Yangtze River runs through the city.
OMG…!!!
When we woke up the next morning after our 7 hour bullet train that arrived at midnight, all I could say was WOW! The complex, although a bit...

Our journey to Suzhou was only around 25 minutes thanks to the bullet train. However given we had to queue for 30 minutes for the tickets itself and then wait another hour for the train, it was still quite a long journey.
We checked into our cute little boutique hotel and settled down for the evening.
The next day we decided to go to a small town outside of Suzhou called Tongli. It's quite famous for being a 1000 year old water town. The town itself was beautiful with cute little waterways for streets and lots of ancient houses which you...

April 19th
What a LONG day today was – again! We really ought to have got in some training for it! Not sleeping well, so when 05:30 comes around it's something of a relief to get up. (Tip for travellers: I purchased some Vietnamese 3-in-1 packets of coffee called 'Vinacafe' before leaving Canada and it is SO much better than the Nescafe and Cow Dust we find in most hotel rooms and no, I don't get a kick-back from the coffee makers for the plug!)
So a brief explanation of our 'Shopping Trip'. We had failed to notice within the...

From Suzhou we drove directly the industrial city of Wuxi, a satellite town that has been built up around an ancient Chinese fishing village on the northern bank of Lake Tai, a large inland lake famous for fresh water pearls and fast becoming a manufacturing hub in this region.
We picked up our local guide, Fay fay, who grew up in the region and was very knowledgable about its history. Our first stop was to a picturesque lakeside park called Liyuan Scenic Garden from where we could see the newly developed bank over the Lihu lake which,...

After enjoying the beauty of the Gardens, some of our more thirsty companions found a beer store just across the street and bought supplies for the group who piled back into the bus to heading on to our next destination before retiring to our hotel, the fabulous Pan Pacific in Suzhou. We had been warned by Sky that the building was designed in the format of a medieval Chinese castle and the room layout was a little confusing but were not prepared for what we experienced. By far, the most enchanting night of our trip.
The Lingering Gardens...

We checked out of the hotel at 9am and headed out on our first official visit of the tour to the State Shanghai Museum. On the way we crossed over the Wusong river which runs into the Huang Po across which the new Shanghai city was built. The museum, located in the landscaped park of the Peoples Square across from the Government Building on Renmin Avenue is built in the shape of an ancient bronze cooking vessel called a 'ding'. The building with a round top and a square base, symbolizing the ancient Chinese perception of the world as "round...

Arrived Nanjing Thursday had a bit of fun at station had trouble getting a cab and when I did put my case in the boot . When I showed the driver the address he refused to take me. Dont know why but had to gey out next option was on the back of a motor scooter so thats howI got here. Yesterday I went to the city wall it has been restored for about 5000m at the end you go through a temple. Today I visited the memorial for the people killed in Nanjing by the Japs in the war. 300000. Were killed and all the women were raped if.they resisted...

Lovely sunrise for our last morning. Cases packed & down to the foyer before breakfast. On the coach for the last time & out to the airport for our 12.30 am flight back to Amsterdam. Time at the airport to say goodbye to Raymond who had done such a great job organising & looking after our group before checking in & suffering the queues at Immigration & Security.
Only an old fashioned Jumbo plane this time for the ten & a half hour flight to Schipol. Then a three hour wait before the final leg back to Heathrow where we were glad to see Bill...

It really was a lovely hotel with the softest bath robes I've ever had. I even got to ride one of their two Segway machines around the spedtacular hotel foyer. A pity we only spent less than twelve hours their before hitting the road back to Shanghai. It is the only hotel I have seen with a tennis court & a putting green on the roof of their restaurant building.
Back on the coach again & off to visit one of Suzhous famous gardens on the way. Not sure which one we went to but it certainly was a lovely place to wander around, very typical of...